The first NEST Partners Meeting of the Chiesi Foundation was held from 16 to 21 October in Ngozi, Burundi!

The NEST Partners Meeting was a time for the Foundation and its partners in the neonatal field to work and meet in order to discuss progress and future plans of the NEST (Neonatal Essential Survival Technology) model.

NEST is a replicable model that aims to reduce neonatal mortality rates by improving the quality of care in countries where access to quality care is not yet guaranteed. Present during the week were hospital directors, doctors and nurses from the respective neonatal departments in Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin and Burundi. The NEST Partners Meeting also saw the participation of Ousmane Ndiaye, neonatologist, professor of pediatrics at the University of Dakar and Vice President of the African Neonatal Association (ANA), partner of the Foundation since 2022.

Two main sessions, chaired by Maria Paola Chiesi and Massimo Salvadori, respectively President and Coordinator of the Chiesi Foundation.

The Foundation’s NEST Partners Meeting, which saw me in Burundi for the first time, was a fundamental moment to underline, once again, the importance of partnerships and the need to work through joint actions towards common objectives. In our case, reducing the mortality rate and ensuring quality neonatal care in Francophone Sub-Saharan African countries. I had the pleasure of visiting the Neonatology department of the Ngozi Hospital, where the Foundation has been operating for ten years with space expansion activities and training courses for healthcare personnel – and of being welcomed with a typical welcome song in Kirundi from the mothers of the Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) department, designed for premature, sick or low birth weight newborns. An incredible experience that allowed me to see first-hand the daily value of our work” commented Maria Paola Chiesi.

During the week of the NEST Partners Meeting, there was also a day open to institutions (18 October 2023), dedicated to the launch of the KMC (Kangaroo Mother Care) project in the province of Ngozi. After a visit to the neonatal intensive care unit of Ngozi Hospital, funded by the Foundation, the Governor of Ngozi Region, Minani Desire, and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Isidore Ntiharirizwa, officially opened the event. Also present were the Provincial Doctor of the Province of Ngozi, Niyonzima Jean Bosco, Dr. Akindavyi Cléophile, Director General of the Ministry of Health and the fight against AIDS, the Directors of the regional hospitals of Burundi, and other national and international stakeholders.

During the day, Professor Ousmane Ndiaye gave a speech in which he underlined the importance of KMC as a low-cost life-saving method, especially in contexts with low and medium resources, where investments in the maternal-neonatal field are still too limited.

Finally, Olivier Gahungere, representative of the Ministry of Health, presented the ENAP acceleration plan – Every Newborn Action Plan, a roadmap that defines objectives and concrete actions to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in order to reach target 3.2 of the United Nations sustainable development: By 2030, end avoidable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with a goal for all countries to reduce neonatal mortality to no more than 12 per 1,000 live births.